The term ‘early years’ has often been used to refer to children up to eight years old. This is still the case in many countries, but in the United Kingdom the term is now applied mainly to three to six year olds in the ‘foundation’ years. The experiences a child has in the preschool and early school years are likely to affect later development and there has been a lot of debate about how much structured learning there should be. Traditionally much learning during these years was achieved through rich experience through play and discovery with little formal instruction. Recent initiatives affecting the under sixes include the formulation of ‘early learning goals’ for children entering school (thus creating a foundation pre-National Curriculum for children in under fives settings), the putting in place of baseline assessment shortly after children enter compulsory schooling and the increasing of the range of providers of early years education.
The main issue is whether children aged three to six benefit from the kind of structured learning environments and direct teaching OFSTED recommend in their publication The Quality of Nursery Education. Many respected practitioners and early years educationists believe play based and child directed learning contexts are more appropriate for the age group. Their concern is that direct teaching at too young an age might lead to a lack of self confidence and create anxiety. Mary Jane Drummond has a vision for Reception class children in which children’s learning – through play, firsthand experience and talk – is prized above teaching plans and targets. We need to ask the philosophical question: what is a good childhood and how can our provision support this? (Drummond, 2003).
It is always helpful to know something about the approach in other countries when thinking about these issues. There is a trend in the French écoles maternelles and in Japanese private nurseries towards some literacy teaching and New Zealand, Trinidad and the Republic of Ireland teach reading early as in Britain. But many other countries favour play based programmes for children under six or seven. In Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland children learn through play and discovery at nursery, learning to read and write formally only when they start school at seven years. Hungary, Austria and Switzerland favour an oral approach to teaching nursery aged children and musical activities are integrated into the daily programme.
Early years practitioners in the United Kingdom hope the Early Learning Goals can be interpreted in a way that will ensure a rich learning environment for the under sixes. I think this means achieving these within the ‘big shapes’ of learning. What are the ‘big shapes’ or priorities for language and literacy? First of all we should recognise that children bring to school many achievements and ways of dealing successfully with new experiences. This is where we begin. We need also to see becoming literate as part of a bigger picture of making meaning, through activities like role play, art and craft and talking and listening in a range of contexts. The nursery or early years team like to plan activities round a theme like Ourselves, Journeys, Growing and so on. This gives a vitality and coherence to all the activities, including language activities. I remember a Reception class who helped the teacher make the home corner into a fire station and who were keen to write the work rotas for the noticeboard and to tell and write stories about rescuing people from fires (Dalton-Vinters and Mallett, 1995).
Language work is nourished by books and resources. Often the adult will take up an opportunity to enrich and inform children’s play with a story or information book. Children enjoying play round the idea of Journeys asked for a book that would tell them about how train doors shut and how you make tickets. This project and others are case studies in Young Researchers (Mallett, 1999, Chapters 2 and 3) and in Early Years Non-fiction (Mallett, 2003). Sharing stories is a particularly enjoyable and important activity: children listen, talk about the characters and link their own experiences with what happens. Early enjoyment of story is the foundation for later literary experience where children need to have sympathetic insight into the circumstances and feelings of others. Sometimes it is enough just to hear the story read and talk about it, but at other times it can lead to role play, early writing and art work.
Good partnership between schools and parents and families is helpful for every aspect of learning, including literacy development. Teachers benefit from knowing about a child’s literacy practices and experiences at home. There is more about this under the entries on ‘parents and families’ and on ‘siblings and literacy’. Parents are often extremely supportive and willing to do practical things like displaying books and translating stories into home languages. I remember a student being delighted when the parents of her nursery class sent in photographs of the children as babies so that she could help them to make their own book based on the Ahlbergs’ Peepo!
Even if you are a teacher of older children there are several reasons why you should make yourself knowledgeable about early years education. First, some of the most interesting research about how human beings learn, not least how they learn to speak and develop their language abilities, has been carried out with very young children. From birth to about six years there is ‘unparalleled speed and complexity of growth in children’s thinking, language, social and cultural awareness and physical skills’ (Whitehead, 1999, p. 1). Second, the essentially active way in which children learn has implications for a model of learning to serve beyond the very early years. Third, later learning builds on the earliest stages. To take just one example, if teachers of older children are familiar with the kind of programme in good nurseries which emphasises young children’s enjoyment and participation in story telling, saying and singing nursery rhymes and sharing picture books of vitality and merit, they can build on this. Finally, the good early years practitioner is a helpful model for the role of the teacher at all stages. We can learn much about the how to observe children, how to relate these observations to our planning, how to intervene sensitively and how to evaluate progress. Not all of the books listed below are referred to directly in this entry, but they would all help extend your understanding of children’s language and literacy needs at this crucial early stage.
Browne, Ann (2001, revised edition) Developing Language and Literacy 3–8 London: Paul Chapman.
Bruce, Tina (2004) Cultivating Creativity in Babies, Toddlers and Young Children London: Hodder & Stoughton.
Campbell, Robin (1996) Literacy in Nursery Education Stoke on Trent: Trentham Books.
Dalton-Vinters, Julia and Mallett, Margaret (1995) ‘Six year olds read about fire fighters’ in Reading UKRA, April, 29 (1).
De Boo, Max (ed.) (2004) The Early Years Handbook: Support for practitioners in the foundation stage London: The Curriculum Partnership (covers English, science, design and technology, geography and maths).
Drummond, Mary, J. (2003) ‘Breathe life into child-hood’ in The Times Educational Supplement, 28 November.
Mallett, Margaret (1999) Young Researchers: Informational Reading and Writing in the Early and Primary Years London: Routledge.
Mallett, Margaret (2003) Early Years Non-Fiction. London: Routledge.
Nutbrown, C. (1997) Recognising Early Literacy Development: Assessing Children’s Achievements London: Paul Chapman.
Palmer, Sue and Bayley, Ros (2004) Foundations of Literacy London: Network Educational Press (shows how a structured, oral-based curriculum can be followed and suggests many lively activities in the areas of music, story and early writing).
Sylva, Kathy, Siraj-Blatchford, Iram and Taggart, Brenda (2003) Assessing Quality in the Early Years: Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale Extension: Four Curricular Subscales London: Trentham Books. (These researchers have provided scales to measure quality in literacy, numeracy, etc., as observable in preschool settings. These scales are described in this book and while they are research tools it is hoped they will have a more general use in helping early years practitioners provide a quality environment in which children can flourish.)
Whitehead, Marian R. (2004, third edition) Language and Literacy in the Early Years London: Paul Chapman.
Whitehead, Marian (1999) Supporting Language and Literacy Development in the Early Years Buckingham and Philadelphia: Open University Press.
Whitehead, Marian (2007, third edition) Developing Language and Literacy, 0–8. London: Paul Chapman.
This is the complete article, containing 1,440 words
(approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page).
